Breathe
by EmeraldTulip
Summary: 'It's funny on how you focus on something so rudimentary when it—along with everything else you know—will be gone in just a few minutes.'
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** _"Breathe"_

 **Rating:** T for character death

 **Genre:** Drama, Angst, Family, Action

 **Characters:** Leo and Bree, mostly

 **Pairing(s):** None, strong Leo/Bree siblingness.

 **Summary:** 'It's funny on how you focus on something so rudimentary when it—along with everything else you know—will be gone in just a few minutes.'

 **Notes:** Don't know why I'm putting this up mere minutes after my first story, but I had this one ready to go, and I thought: Why not? So, some warnings: This is a deathfic (don't ask me why a deathfic is one of my first stories, but it is). Meaning: it is sad. I cried when I wrote it. If you don't want tears, leave now. But if you're gonna stick through it and read a newbie's (my) writing, YAY! Thank you!

Small edit: daphrose has reminded me that this bears resemblance to one of her works. Honestly, I wasn't even thinking about it, but if there are any similarities, that's where you've seen it from. daphrose, if you're reading this, sorry for not giving you credit, I quite honestly didn't realize.

* * *

He heard the loud bang, he felt a sting, not unlike a bee or jellyfish, and then he went down, crashing to the floor. Through the haze of growing pain, he could see the two culprits, features blurred due to his fading eyesight, standing to the side, could barely hear them talking over the ringing in his ears. They just kept talking. Not even looking at him.

 _Look at me,_ he pleaded in his mind. _Look at me so you can see what you've done, what you've caused. Don't just ignore me. I'm not nothing._

Because that's what the lack of attention said. He's nothing. He always was. Unworthy of the black mission suit he wears, unworthy of the triple-ring insignia stitched into the suit under his collarbone, by his heart. The lack of attention told him he was worthless.

 _Triple rings._

Three, not four. It says he's not one of them. And it made him a target. Literally. He could feel the bullet—for now he realizes that it was a bullet—imbedded into his flesh directly in the spot the insignias on his suit.

 _Wait. My comm set._

He tried to reach for his ear, but his limbs would no longer obey his mind. Now it was another torture device. The thing that could save him was resting in his ear, but he couldn't use it.

Muffled words, covered with static and the noise rushing in his ears, flooded into his ear, but nothing was clear.

 _Figure out I'm not with you. Please._

He felt a stab of pain go through his chest, and his breath hitched.

 _Breathe. Just breathe. Wait for them to come, because they_ will _come. They_ have _to come. They won't leave me._

Pain. So much pain. Couldn't the pain go away?

 _No. Pain is good. Pain means you're alive! You should feel grateful you can feel pain! Don't wish it away!_

His murderers-to-be still wouldn't look at him. He slowly became aware of the fact that something under his cheek was wet. He painfully turned his eyes downward, faced with a scarlet liquid.

 _Blood._

It was pooling slowly under him, his face pressed to the floor, his cheek immersed into it. That wasn't all. He could feel his eyes prickling, and he saw tears dripping into the spreading pool of his own blood.

 _Someone, come for me. Please. I can't die like this._

That word jolted him. _Die_. That was it, wasn't it? If no one came for him, he'd die. He was a technological master, not a doctor, but he knew that as a fact. He spread his fingers, trying to summon the remains of will and strength to activate an ability, _any_ ability. He concentrated as much as he could despite the blinding headache pulsing in his brain.

 _Nothing. Absolutely nothing._

His hands involuntarily curled back into their original position. He thought he saw a tiny spark between his fingers, but that might have just been his oxygen-deprived brain.

 _Breathe._

As he told himself this for the second time, he felt the urge to laugh. It's funny on how you focus on something so rudimentary when it—along with everything else you know—will be gone in just a few minutes. And he thought this because he knew that he only had a few minutes left, doing a rough calculation on the rate of blood loss and his draining of his own energy with his movements.

 _Draining energy._

Despite his sluggish brain, he realized something. He was trying to take from the criminals, but he should have been using _himself_.

He spread his fingers again, and a red-orange light began to pool into his palm. He could feel his energy leaving, but he could still see. The two criminals spun around to face him— _finally_ —and he saw the terror in their eyes. The light continued to flow, until he was grasping a huge glowing glob. With the last of his strength, he launched it at the criminals. It connected with them, and they were both thrown back into the wall.

He was aware of a blur entering and rushing around the room, and what he was pretty sure were fists connected at an inhuman speed with the two people, and they collapsed to the floor. The blur rushed to him, and he mentally flinched, waiting for a blow, but nothing came. The blur solidified into a girl, with long brown hair and brown eyes filled with fear and worry.

 _Bree. She's here. She came. Bree._

He tried to gasp out her name, to tell her he was still there, and he mostly succeeded.

"Bree…"

He could see the terror in her face, in the way she grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

"You're going to be fine," she said, but he knew that it was a shaky promise at best.

"No…" he groaned. "Tell them… I'm sorry."

"For what?" She asked gently, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Everything," he replied, closing his eyes. He felt her grip on his hand tighten, and she screamed.

"Adam! Chase! Help!" She began to talk quickly, giving their location, but he didn't notice in the slightest. He relaxed his own hands, allowing any remaining energy to flow into his sister.

"Tell Mom… I'm sorry. No parent… should have to… outlive their child. Tell… Big D. Douglas. It's not… their fault. Tell them… I love them." He relaxed his hands.

"No! Leo! No!" She yelled. "Chase! Help!" As her screams echoed down the halls, his world began to go black, and his hearing began to go, the ringing noise quieting.

"Leo! No! Stay with me! Chase is almost here! Wait! No!"

Leo Dooley died saving people, the way he always wanted. Everything faded, and he sank into the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

**This is a follow up chapter I wasn't intending to do, but Phoenix (guest) requested a sequel chapter. I had to tweak the idea a little, but I hope it's good!**

Bree sniffled as the tears poured down her face, and she grasped her brothers' hands tighter.

They all watched in absolute shock and horror as the casket encasing their brother was lowered into the ground. No one moved. It was unreal.

It didn't make sense for Leo Dooley to be the one to die. It was supposed to be her, or Adam or Chase. It was a terrible thing, but that had been the way she'd always assumed it was going to be. They were the originals, they were supposed to die first. She'd imagined it many times in her head, but it never ended like this. She thought she knew that one day, one of them wasn't going to come back, and Leo would be there to pick up the pieces.

Now, those pieces were scattered everywhere, and not just from her, but from everyone. And Leo wasn't there to clean it up.

Taylor was looking almost… _uncomprehendingly_ at the casket, her glasses off, eyes blank. She'd confided in Bree earlier that she was almost _glad_ she couldn't see—she didn't want to see the lifeless body of her teammate, her friend.

Logan was tearing up, a small sob escaping him every once in a while. He stood beside Taylor, supporting the blind girl. She was actually supporting him, too; neither seemed very steady on their feet.

The other bionic students couldn't seem to grasp it either. Spin and Bob in particular were staring at the hole in the ground with shock etched across their features, like they couldn't believe that this was actually happening. They probably couldn't—no one so young should experience loss such as this.

Bree almost couldn't bring herself to look at her parents and creator—but she did. Douglas was very clearly upset, him fidgeting as he realized that he was surrounded by emotionally unstable people—not that he was okay, either.

Mr. Davenport was standing completely still next to Douglas, unblinking, a look of indescribable loss and horror on his face. He was grasping Tasha's hand tightly.

Tasha almost hadn't come. When Bree had relayed Leo's final words to her, her stepmother had broken down. She'd locked herself in Leo's room, refusing to come out for two days until Adam and Chase—with a little help from Taylor—had managed to coax her out. Her face was pale, and she obviously hadn't slept for days.

Bree felt a sudden, indescribable guilt take over her, and she quickly looked away from her stepmother. Unfortunately, that brought her attention to her remaining brothers. Chase's face was blank, but his eyes were glassy and Bree knew he was trying not to cry. Adam obviously was trying to contain himself, because he was trembling so hard, Bree could feel the vibrations spreading to her, too.

One by one, people stepped up and spoke, some to the audience and some to Leo, as though he could hear them: people from Mission Creek High, several students, _her parents_ , and that was almost too hard to watch, she hadn't stopped crying, she wanted to run away.

Because that's all she was good for, right? Running away. She couldn't help. If she could, Leo would be alive.

Just as the casket was about to be buried in dirt, she did something even she wasn't expecting.

"Wait!"

She couldn't help it. She let go of her brothers' hands and surged past the officials, the people burying the casket. She ignored everyone's protests. She simply dropped to her knees beside her youngest brother's body in that box.

"I'm so, _so_ sorry, Leo," she whispered, though she knew he couldn't hear. "I wasn't fast enough. I'm _so sorry_."

Words had never felt emptier to her in her life. She allowed Adam and Chase to drag her back to her place. She watched as Leo's casket was buried beneath handfuls of dirt. She listened as a few more people spoke, and then as everyone dispersed.

And even when her brothers left, she didn't move. She just stood still for hours, looking, wondering what went wrong.


End file.
